Powell: Bush Mulling Iraq Options

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, February 5, 2002

President Bush is considering "a full range of options" for removing Saddam Hussein as Iraq's president, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday.

"The United States might have to do it alone," Powell said at a House hearing.

Iraq is working on developing nuclear weapons, and its refusal to admit international arms inspectors prompted Bush to consider "the most serious set of options that one might imagine," Powell said.

Bush has denounced Iraq for barring U.N. inspectors for more than three years and named the country as part of an "axis of evil" that includes Iran and North Korea.

"He is leaving no stone unturned as to what he might do" if Saddam Hussein does not reverse course, Powell told the House International Relations Committee.

"The president is examining a full range of options," the secretary said. He declined to say whether Bush was considering a military assault on Iraq, or additional economic and diplomatic pressures.

Most Arab governments and some U.S. allies in Europe have cautioned Bush against a military assault on Iraq. They were nearly unanimous in supporting the anti-terrorism campaign against the Taliban and the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan as a response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Arab leaders say Saddam has given the United States no similar provocation.

Iraq has remained bent on developing nuclear weapons, Powell said, adding that U.S. intelligence had concluded Iraq was a year or more away from its goal.

At the hearing, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said, "We simply cannot allow Iraq to develop nuclear weapons." Powell said Bush was considering "the most serious set of options one might consider."

"Regime change is something the United States might have to do alone," Powell said. "How to do it? I would not like to go into the details of the options."

In the past, Powell has suggested diplomatic, political and economic measures could be used to uproot terrorists and their government supporters. But at the hearing, he did not suggest these alternatives to the use of force.

Powell dismissed an Iraqi offer to hold talks with the United Nations, an overture conveyed through the Arab League and accepted by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Powell said Iraq had to accept the return of accept U.N. inspectors, and that there was nothing to discuss otherwise.

By contrast, Powell said the Bush administration was open to "reasonable conversation" with Iran.

Powell said the Untied States had a long-standing list of grievances with Iran, including its support for terrorism and trying to send weapons to the Palestinians.

Iran's "latest provocation," he said, was "meddling in Afghanistan" and unsettling the fragile interim government in Kabul.

"Get out of the `axis of evil' column and make a choice that we think your people want you to make and not the choice your nonelected government has been making in recent years," he said.